Back in May of 2021, Matt Taibbi interviewed me for his Meet the Censored series. We talked about how critics of the official Covid narrative were being censored by global corporations like Twitter and Facebook. I got into my "GloboCap" shtick a little, but, all in all, it was pretty tame stuff.
Please see the (April 25) addendum at the bottom of this newsletter for an update on Substack Notes, which, unfortunately, became significantly less interesting a few hours after I sent out this newsletter. I apologize if I got anyone terribly excited. And, no worries, although I seem to be running out of social media, I will be right here in my BTL replies, which I do read, and respond to, occasionally. I'll try to do more of that in the future.
Apr 23, 2023·edited Apr 23, 2023Liked by CJ Hopkins
As grating as the pro-censorship totalitarianists on Notes can be, I have to thank them for prompting so many deliciously entertaining responses from you 😋
And I have to say it feels nice to have you there fighting so visibly for free speech and truth, CJ. During my rare excursions to non-Substack platforms, I’m used to being one of the lone voices battling the shrieks for censorship, whereas we have a strong pro-freedom contingency at Notes. Feels strange but good 💪
I recently lost all my social media accounts and I have to say, it felt a little like... I have arrived 😂. And then it felt annoying because it is.
And then when Google shut me down and I got the gulag-y message that they were going to delete my Drive files in 28 days, I felt solidly 'not enamored' with the arrival of myself in Cancelville.
Anyway...thank you for your work. I'm happy to support it.
Lol...i was surprised by it as well. In the grand scheme of conspiracy theorists, I feel like I’m a really small fish. It was after my post about that giant united healthcare acquisition that is clearly creating a monopoly and violating antitrust laws...pushed through by a clearly compromised judge. But it’s probably nbd 😅
That is seriously creepy. I thought platforms were being more cautious with Twitter being under the microscope and shining a light on government–Big Tech collusion.
The really frightening aspect of the censorship is just how much control a single corporation has over the stifling of speech, namely Google and it's not just well known 'dissidents', it's anybody who steps out of line. When Russia's SMO began in February 2022, I was covering events and getting hundreds, even thousands of visits a day, then Google blocked searches and visits dropped to the tens a day. So I started checking other independent news sites and discovered that ANY site that told a different story was being blocked by Google's so-called search engine (in reality it's a ranking engine, which is why it's so successful at throttling any information that challenges the Empire). Google has managed to make itself indispensible by interposing itself as the MEDIATOR of virtually every aspect of the Internet that involves any kind of transaction between the user and data, of ANY KIND. This is unprecedented and it's happened without any kind of opposition as it's happened in small increments, one step at a time. Google is now the UNIVERSAL ARBITER of information! To see how complete Google's control is, try using the Internet without a Google account, Google can even block what email you get and send.
When friends used to ask why I never joined FB, I said, aside from the construction of an interconnected and intrusive dossier on every user (and non user friends of users) the crux is that all content is mediated by a corporate “intercessionary” that is not at all benign but mostly invisible to the avid user.
Of course, I’m nuts they said and a month later FB announced a fact checking partnership with the Atlantic Council, haha… or not-so-haha. That new was lost on such friends cuz I guess they didn’t interpret it outside the FB curated environment. It then became apparent on Google quickly going out of control for anyone with eyes to see.
PS- Ever notice people you used to know who are avid FB users begin to “narrow” in their worldview and become unnuanced if they used to be?
There’s that sick feeling learning what side of history friends and relatives would have been on in the past, an unthinkable proposition only a few short years ago.
FB is very invasive. If you land on a site that has a like button on it then FB will follow you on the internet to every site you visit even if you don’t belong to it and gather your browsing history. I wrote about this a few years ago and I apologize for not being able to link to the information. I’ve never given them permission to do that, but of course our government has. Do a search for anything and soon that information will start popping up in ads on the other sites you visit. Even if you don’t use google. Duck go sold out during the Covid scam.
And I think, it does need to be validated that this platform has the some of the same investors as Twitter. And they may be giving/selling data to Google. This needs to be clarified; Brian does have points here.
"Venture Capital Backed Substack Latest Big Tech Company to Report Huge Financial Losses"
And as nothing from that valley has ever been regulated - and they continue to build AI off of us from almost everything we do - FOR YEARS. ALL OF THESE COMPANIES and they have now most computers, for sure cell phones, with backend entrances. Use it now and also be ready to let this all go when it gets to be like other countries that have the full social credit systems already in place.
Yes. Everybody relies on Google to find information on the Internet. Have you tried searching for anything with known buzzwords or things that have been "fact-checked"? You'll get endless copies of msm articles repeating ridiculous fact checks and that's it. You would think there should be endless web pages in the results that talk about your search word including blog posts, twenty year old homepages and all sorts of weird stuff - in other words: the Internet - but it seems like Google doesn't even show 99% of what's out there and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't even have most of that stored in their index. For example, try searching for "vaccine injuries", it claims to have found 476 million results. Each result page lists 10 results. Then go to page 17, now it says at the top that it found 169 results and there are no more result pages. Where are all those 476 million results? They don't exist. It's like digital money in your bank - it appears to be there but when everybody wants to see it, it's gone.
And there are many other so-called search engines, most of which aren't real search engines, they just search Google behind the scenes like Startpage or like Yahoo searches Bing behind the scenes. Bing appears to be independent from Google showing more results, so is Yandex, I think. They used to find worse results in general (but I guess it depends) and they obviously find all that msm garbage as well. But hey, for "wtc barry jennings" both show Corbett on the first page.
Forever grateful for anything I can receive from your work . I was able to get your book The Rise of the New Normal Reich , from amazon here in Canada , a place where the fringe are trying to say "not so safe and effective " and still don't openly talk about the WEF and/ or as as we should be ,in my opinion , re Xi's infiltration into our government's policies . We were locked down longer than most places , for the good of us all , and now can't wonder if Dr Tam, chief public health officer of Canada , is part of XI's infiltration and the WHO . Thank you for everything you are doing in this dystopian world ,some of us seem to be aware of .
I am so tired of assholes spreading this lie that I am tempted to just ban you, but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're just ignorant. Educate and inform yourself. Start here ... https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-the-new-normal-reich-894
Dr Tam came to Canada in order to implement the Chinese Hive System as has been done in New Zealand , Australia , England , Germany and amongst the other European rump satrapies of the faltering American hegemony. All those bribes aka political contributions accepted by the Trudeaucrats have a cost attached as has now become evident .
Where did I put my dictionary ? Love learning new words ; I think I'm getting your meaning here Jim - the hive system alive and well where we live - like an explosion of people who don't speak any English and have bought up many of the houses for sale and most wearing masks -all the time. Pretty sure that'll be required wearing , while no one is even looking or saying anything - we are polite like anything here in good old ,sold out Canada .
Every pushback counts - yeah, even if it's just to the one pushing back. Integrity matters and self-censorship is the softest kind of compliance. Thanks.
It's hard (for myself, at least) to justify going the Notes route. What attracted me to Substack in the first place was the long form, as a counterweight to the daily food fight of weapons/surveillance platforms like Twitter and Facebook (and the panoply of similar "hot take" systems that have flowered in their wake.
That said, Godspeed to you and everyone else who decides to take the plunge. I will say it’s fascinating to me to see how writers like you, who align with me very little on ideas and policy can still see the same outlines of the larger threat. That’s heartening, and I'll continue to read your long form work for that reason.
Many thanks ... and wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to fight the larger threat and could debate the ideas and policies we disagree on like civilized people, and sort all that out through democratic processes? I seem to recall that that was possible once.
The memory of that time, like all the phone numbers I used to know, is fading fast. But it's not gone. It's possible to recapture or rebuild, I think. I am even able to do it in my own life, with people I love and trust. It's a strange and beautiful thing to experience, because everyone in those conversations comes away wiser, and at least questioning their a priori assumptions about the world. My fear is that Notes, like Twitter et al, will reignite the old Flame Wars and burn everything that matters to the waterline.
I have to say that I’m envious that you can still engage with people face to face. For myself, it really is only a fading memory now. It won’t stop me from continuing to try, as I keep calling out to the abyss, but it is disheartening. Thank goodness we at least have CJ’s voice and a few others in the 1’s and 0’s landscape to alleviate the silence in the wilderness of the current physical world…
First, I love you and what you have done, are doing and are attempting to do.
I won't engage in substack notes, because the format - twitter like as it is - brings out the worst in us. I guess somebody has to engage it though? Or perhaps not? Perhaps if everybody ignores it, it will wither and die, being left as a stinking echo chamber for the neo-cons. We need all our strength, and we can build the better world, ever mindful of the Japanese art of Kintsuge as we repair what was broken, ever so prayerfully - with the gold of what we were meant to be. Illustriously human. THAT part of being human is un-hackable. Big hug.
I’m sure any pomposity on your part is merely an equal and opposite reaction to the pre charged pomposity that comes from dippy deep state assets! I find that an agreeable utility😁
I cannot believe there was a tower in Germany blasting the message Vaccination=Freedom. It is a direct reference to the slogans in Orwell’s 1984 It had to be intentional. Very scary
Thanks CJ. I definitely know what you mean and it's worth a try to engage for sure until it stops working for you. I know you're aware of your own energy levels in all this, and it's how we all can find out more, when we fight Golem, find out more about everything we're facing, just... don't let the muck pull you in too far is all. :) I guess just.. thank you for being aware and willing to go in. :)
Remarkably, the article doesn't mention Matt Taibbi or Julian Assange.
Reminds me of a Mel Brooks routine in which he plays an 800 year old man who is being interviewed. When he's asked about the difference between comedy and tragedy, the 800 year old explains,
"Comedy is when it happens to someone else. Tragedy is when it happens to you."
With a bit of editing, we could apply the explanation to censorship.
You Americans are so lucky you have the second amendment. I’m Canadian and we are absolutely hooped: right up the Wazoo.
Listen, your guns aren’t going to overthrow leviathan , that is delusional. What your guns are doing is causing them not to come for you even more. Without your peacemakers, they would be all over you, like, for instance, Canada or Australia or Germany.
Your founding fathers were prescient ; the lesson of history is that government oppression
is the biggest threat to people. Think of the patriot act: the US government is clearly a bigger threat to your society than Islamic extremism.
The only way this is going to change (other than the pitiless crowbar a events) is if a significant portion of the elite, political establishment breaks with the new normal. Until then you are lucky that you have your guns to forestall their grand plans.
Semantics is the art of wordsmithery which closely resembles jiu-jitsu. As a personal preference I refuse to use their terminology for alleged "laws" promoted by a nearly totally corrupted and corrupted Congre$$.
When these bought and paid-for pro$titicians abuse the word "Patriot" in such an egregious manner; my editorial take is to flip the meaning semantically.
So the proper description for all those fellow countryfolk who hold to the "self evident" truths of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, strike me as deserving the sobriquet of the "Patriot SUPPRESSION Act".
Now does that not make a whole lot more sense rather than falling into their semantic trap and using their devious and dubious desecration of the word "Patriot".
Addendum: it is true, that having a citizenry armed with the weapons of war can lead to some unintended consequences. Yes, mass shootings happen in America because Americans are armed to the teeth. This I would say is the cost of liberty.
The coming totalitarian state will take many more lives. It will also destroy the quality of our lives. An armed citizenry is the best defence against leviathan; It will not lead to the overthrow, but it will forestall their ever expanding efforts at control . Said another way: they are afraid of the American people and they should be ! Do you think the German authorities are afraid of the German people? Really, what are you going to fight back with steak knives !
The 1000 or so people who die in mass shootings at the hands of deranged lunatics is a sorrowful, but worthwhile price to pay. The media loves to say we need rid of the guns when it comes to some white guy plunking a couple dozen folks from a bell tower. But you notice they are always silent about black on black gun violence that claims over 10,000 lives per year.
Ambient political conditioning is the water we swim in.
Interestingly , trying to make a living as a dissident by marketing your protests has been done to death and always fails or becomes a tool of the status quo at some point . Being too poor to contribute to your causes even though I concur with many of your published views , I'm immune to exhortations to contribute financially . However , I will continue to read what you freely distribute , but As Linh Dinh pointed out recently in one of his free post . Perhaps I paraphrase , old age produces sadness followed by indifference , at 75 I seem to have reached that point.
Cheer up, it will all be over soon! In the meantime, please feel free to continue reading for free. My columns will remain free to all to read precisely because many people can't afford to pay for them. I've been one of those people for most of my life, and most Americans (and Brits) would laugh at what I still live on.
I am very wary of Substack Notes. I fear it will bring to Substack much of the toxicity of Twitter while having little prospect of attaining Twitter's reach, i.e., it will be toxic but not even useful.
Great and astonishing must read is Rod Dreher's rather new book (with reverence and awe attributed to the many stalwart, innovative and faithful survivors and servants interviewed who endured during Gulag and Soviet eras) - "Live Not By Lies" - A Manual for Christian Dissidents. Taibbi and others have more support and swelling ranks than you can imagine, however robustly they appear to be smeared in the mosh pit.
The fact that Taibbi's getting the "treatment" really overscores the point of the Neo-authoritarian/totalitarian project. It's like being banned from the Church of Lies, branded a traitor, a heretic, then scolded by the would be "New Normalites," never short on self-righteousness (Mehdi Hasan, Stacy Plaskett-"Case," the whole "What Happened to Matt?!" crowd, who might as well be getting paid by the alphabet agencies). The Biden Administration is in essence an intelligence agency construct, or Neo-totalitarian scaffolding; they've been gunning for Substack from its inception.
"We’re experiencing real-time Sovietization," with a huge dose of
techno/fascism an odd tyrannical combo, but nonetheless this is how the current breed of pyschos are rebranding an early 20th Century "transhumanist Malthusian eugenicist movement." This psychopathic ideology resurfaces every few decades with a slightly different look. This time it's being peddled under the banner of sustainability, health, equity, and multipolarism. Ironically, the advocates of this rebranded
multipolar/fascism are eager to have corrupt UN organizations controlling numerous operations via One World Governance. The brazen pschos have tested their social engineering projects around the planet, but especially in territories where populations lack agency; China has been a favorite haunt. The techno/fascists feel confident that AI technology is ready for primetime in the West. That's why they're testing central bank digital currencies along with digital ID'S in Western Europe and Canada. Interestingly enough, the same demented crap is occurring in Russia. So even though the plebs are told there's animosty and rivalries between nation-states it doesn't mean a thing as rulers worldwide are gearing up their "special" techno devices along with an assortment of concocted well-staged crises to
The roots of our contemporary madhouse excuse for alleged civilization, is actually in part resultant of urbanization and industrialization. The inner core of the disease is centralization and concentration of money and power into fewer and fewer hands.
Many of us are conversant with the old African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. Perhaps we should consider taking that advise literally. This would be particularly true for parents or those who are becoming or will soon add a child to their family. Rather than dive in deep for the good job and all that, how about a grouping of young adults along with a few elders pooling their resources and buying up a nice piece of rural land as an intentional community. Homes would be private. The land itself would be the commons, the property of the entire community.
My home is in rural Minnesota. This state, along with neighboring Wisconsin, still feature some areas which are not overburdened by corporate style agribusiness instead of organic and health-giving farming. Much of the more tractor and monster machinery favorable flatlands are already the sites of agribusy desecration of Mother Earth and our fellow beings in the plant and animal worlds. Future survival may still be possible with small communities, united in escaping from the madding crowd and the rat race. So who won the ratrace? The rat, of course.
In the past, participating in parallel economies were a way of surviving, or functioning in monopolistic centralized authoritarian regimes. And it might still be useful. In fact, those living off the grid might be the last holdouts when things start getting really nasty. In fact, many thousands of "homeless squatters" residing in federal and state parks might even be the final survivors of this madness. But of course, as surveillance technology is enhanced everyone will be hunted down and herded into "15 minute detention camp cities" while demented techno/fascists enjoy life on enormous organic farms, or lounging in their palatial estates.
Please see the (April 25) addendum at the bottom of this newsletter for an update on Substack Notes, which, unfortunately, became significantly less interesting a few hours after I sent out this newsletter. I apologize if I got anyone terribly excited. And, no worries, although I seem to be running out of social media, I will be right here in my BTL replies, which I do read, and respond to, occasionally. I'll try to do more of that in the future.
As grating as the pro-censorship totalitarianists on Notes can be, I have to thank them for prompting so many deliciously entertaining responses from you 😋
And I have to say it feels nice to have you there fighting so visibly for free speech and truth, CJ. During my rare excursions to non-Substack platforms, I’m used to being one of the lone voices battling the shrieks for censorship, whereas we have a strong pro-freedom contingency at Notes. Feels strange but good 💪
You're doing a pretty good job yourself ... I loved your Notes from earlier today!
Aww, thanks, CJ. Those words mean a lot coming from you.
Subscription upgraded ✅
Keep fighting the good fight.
I recently lost all my social media accounts and I have to say, it felt a little like... I have arrived 😂. And then it felt annoying because it is.
And then when Google shut me down and I got the gulag-y message that they were going to delete my Drive files in 28 days, I felt solidly 'not enamored' with the arrival of myself in Cancelville.
Anyway...thank you for your work. I'm happy to support it.
Thank you ... much appreciated!
Wow, Sarah, you really must be a Badass German (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/are-you-a-good-german-or-a-badass) to have raked up so many impressive truth-telling trophies:
• “Letter to a Mainstream Straddler: Live Not by Half-Lies” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-mainstream-straddler)
I’ve never even heard of anyone having their Google Drive canceled like that. Good thing I don’t store anything on Google Drive.
Lol...i was surprised by it as well. In the grand scheme of conspiracy theorists, I feel like I’m a really small fish. It was after my post about that giant united healthcare acquisition that is clearly creating a monopoly and violating antitrust laws...pushed through by a clearly compromised judge. But it’s probably nbd 😅
That is seriously creepy. I thought platforms were being more cautious with Twitter being under the microscope and shining a light on government–Big Tech collusion.
I’m pretty sure I took a screenshot of the message...I’ll see if I can dig it up.
You should do a post about your 360-degree cancellation!
This one :
https://open.substack.com/pub/conspiracysarah/p/hey-you-know-that-huge-acquisition?r=thuli&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I'm amazed at the stuff that earns a ban these days.
Like, are they trying to get us all together in a big group?
Don't answer that lol
That's my point...small fish. Tiny.
wtf.
"Gandhi/King construct"?
The really frightening aspect of the censorship is just how much control a single corporation has over the stifling of speech, namely Google and it's not just well known 'dissidents', it's anybody who steps out of line. When Russia's SMO began in February 2022, I was covering events and getting hundreds, even thousands of visits a day, then Google blocked searches and visits dropped to the tens a day. So I started checking other independent news sites and discovered that ANY site that told a different story was being blocked by Google's so-called search engine (in reality it's a ranking engine, which is why it's so successful at throttling any information that challenges the Empire). Google has managed to make itself indispensible by interposing itself as the MEDIATOR of virtually every aspect of the Internet that involves any kind of transaction between the user and data, of ANY KIND. This is unprecedented and it's happened without any kind of opposition as it's happened in small increments, one step at a time. Google is now the UNIVERSAL ARBITER of information! To see how complete Google's control is, try using the Internet without a Google account, Google can even block what email you get and send.
Amen!
^^^ this x2
When friends used to ask why I never joined FB, I said, aside from the construction of an interconnected and intrusive dossier on every user (and non user friends of users) the crux is that all content is mediated by a corporate “intercessionary” that is not at all benign but mostly invisible to the avid user.
Of course, I’m nuts they said and a month later FB announced a fact checking partnership with the Atlantic Council, haha… or not-so-haha. That new was lost on such friends cuz I guess they didn’t interpret it outside the FB curated environment. It then became apparent on Google quickly going out of control for anyone with eyes to see.
PS- Ever notice people you used to know who are avid FB users begin to “narrow” in their worldview and become unnuanced if they used to be?
There’s that sick feeling learning what side of history friends and relatives would have been on in the past, an unthinkable proposition only a few short years ago.
FB is very invasive. If you land on a site that has a like button on it then FB will follow you on the internet to every site you visit even if you don’t belong to it and gather your browsing history. I wrote about this a few years ago and I apologize for not being able to link to the information. I’ve never given them permission to do that, but of course our government has. Do a search for anything and soon that information will start popping up in ads on the other sites you visit. Even if you don’t use google. Duck go sold out during the Covid scam.
Specifics on the Duck would be interesting.
Facebook, Inc. Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation
Case No. 3:18-md-02843-VC
United States District Court for the Northern District of California
The deadline for submitting this Claim Form is August 25, 2023 at 11:59 PM PT
facebookuserprivacysettlement.com
https://facebookuserprivacysettlement.com/#submit-claim
And I think, it does need to be validated that this platform has the some of the same investors as Twitter. And they may be giving/selling data to Google. This needs to be clarified; Brian does have points here.
"Venture Capital Backed Substack Latest Big Tech Company to Report Huge Financial Losses"
https://healthimpactnews.com/2023/venture-capital-backed-substack-latest-big-tech-company-to-report-huge-financial-losses/
And as nothing from that valley has ever been regulated - and they continue to build AI off of us from almost everything we do - FOR YEARS. ALL OF THESE COMPANIES and they have now most computers, for sure cell phones, with backend entrances. Use it now and also be ready to let this all go when it gets to be like other countries that have the full social credit systems already in place.
The RESTRICT Act is the final TYRANNY nail in the coffin of the crumbling republic
https://www.brighteon.com/34c49f07-a999-4727-8f20-0536fb9ab525
Yes. Everybody relies on Google to find information on the Internet. Have you tried searching for anything with known buzzwords or things that have been "fact-checked"? You'll get endless copies of msm articles repeating ridiculous fact checks and that's it. You would think there should be endless web pages in the results that talk about your search word including blog posts, twenty year old homepages and all sorts of weird stuff - in other words: the Internet - but it seems like Google doesn't even show 99% of what's out there and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't even have most of that stored in their index. For example, try searching for "vaccine injuries", it claims to have found 476 million results. Each result page lists 10 results. Then go to page 17, now it says at the top that it found 169 results and there are no more result pages. Where are all those 476 million results? They don't exist. It's like digital money in your bank - it appears to be there but when everybody wants to see it, it's gone.
And there are many other so-called search engines, most of which aren't real search engines, they just search Google behind the scenes like Startpage or like Yahoo searches Bing behind the scenes. Bing appears to be independent from Google showing more results, so is Yandex, I think. They used to find worse results in general (but I guess it depends) and they obviously find all that msm garbage as well. But hey, for "wtc barry jennings" both show Corbett on the first page.
Forever grateful for anything I can receive from your work . I was able to get your book The Rise of the New Normal Reich , from amazon here in Canada , a place where the fringe are trying to say "not so safe and effective " and still don't openly talk about the WEF and/ or as as we should be ,in my opinion , re Xi's infiltration into our government's policies . We were locked down longer than most places , for the good of us all , and now can't wonder if Dr Tam, chief public health officer of Canada , is part of XI's infiltration and the WHO . Thank you for everything you are doing in this dystopian world ,some of us seem to be aware of .
The book is only banned in Germany, Austria, and The Netherlands, so far. Glad you were able to get a copy!
DELIGHTED to have the privilege to read some of your many thoughts - in my opinion, the best of covid !
I am so tired of assholes spreading this lie that I am tempted to just ban you, but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're just ignorant. Educate and inform yourself. Start here ... https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-the-new-normal-reich-894
Troll better elsewhere.
Dr Tam came to Canada in order to implement the Chinese Hive System as has been done in New Zealand , Australia , England , Germany and amongst the other European rump satrapies of the faltering American hegemony. All those bribes aka political contributions accepted by the Trudeaucrats have a cost attached as has now become evident .
Where did I put my dictionary ? Love learning new words ; I think I'm getting your meaning here Jim - the hive system alive and well where we live - like an explosion of people who don't speak any English and have bought up many of the houses for sale and most wearing masks -all the time. Pretty sure that'll be required wearing , while no one is even looking or saying anything - we are polite like anything here in good old ,sold out Canada .
@jim- “… European rump satrapies of the faltering American hegemony”
That fabulous sentence fragment speaks volumes!
Every pushback counts - yeah, even if it's just to the one pushing back. Integrity matters and self-censorship is the softest kind of compliance. Thanks.
It's hard (for myself, at least) to justify going the Notes route. What attracted me to Substack in the first place was the long form, as a counterweight to the daily food fight of weapons/surveillance platforms like Twitter and Facebook (and the panoply of similar "hot take" systems that have flowered in their wake.
That said, Godspeed to you and everyone else who decides to take the plunge. I will say it’s fascinating to me to see how writers like you, who align with me very little on ideas and policy can still see the same outlines of the larger threat. That’s heartening, and I'll continue to read your long form work for that reason.
Many thanks ... and wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to fight the larger threat and could debate the ideas and policies we disagree on like civilized people, and sort all that out through democratic processes? I seem to recall that that was possible once.
The memory of that time, like all the phone numbers I used to know, is fading fast. But it's not gone. It's possible to recapture or rebuild, I think. I am even able to do it in my own life, with people I love and trust. It's a strange and beautiful thing to experience, because everyone in those conversations comes away wiser, and at least questioning their a priori assumptions about the world. My fear is that Notes, like Twitter et al, will reignite the old Flame Wars and burn everything that matters to the waterline.
I have to say that I’m envious that you can still engage with people face to face. For myself, it really is only a fading memory now. It won’t stop me from continuing to try, as I keep calling out to the abyss, but it is disheartening. Thank goodness we at least have CJ’s voice and a few others in the 1’s and 0’s landscape to alleviate the silence in the wilderness of the current physical world…
If you can judge a man by his enemies, congratulations on being one of the finest human beings in the world.
Hi CJ.
First, I love you and what you have done, are doing and are attempting to do.
I won't engage in substack notes, because the format - twitter like as it is - brings out the worst in us. I guess somebody has to engage it though? Or perhaps not? Perhaps if everybody ignores it, it will wither and die, being left as a stinking echo chamber for the neo-cons. We need all our strength, and we can build the better world, ever mindful of the Japanese art of Kintsuge as we repair what was broken, ever so prayerfully - with the gold of what we were meant to be. Illustriously human. THAT part of being human is un-hackable. Big hug.
I feel like it is kind of my responsibility to engage on these platforms (or was) ... although that might be pompous of me.
be as pompous as you like as long as you fight!
I’m sure any pomposity on your part is merely an equal and opposite reaction to the pre charged pomposity that comes from dippy deep state assets! I find that an agreeable utility😁
I cannot believe there was a tower in Germany blasting the message Vaccination=Freedom. It is a direct reference to the slogans in Orwell’s 1984 It had to be intentional. Very scary
Thanks CJ. I definitely know what you mean and it's worth a try to engage for sure until it stops working for you. I know you're aware of your own energy levels in all this, and it's how we all can find out more, when we fight Golem, find out more about everything we're facing, just... don't let the muck pull you in too far is all. :) I guess just.. thank you for being aware and willing to go in. :)
Well, I think it’s a good way to discover other ‘stacks that I would not otherwise find. That’s the attraction for me, so I hope it is here to stay.
That’s how I “discovered” @cjhopkins
Today's EL PAÍS has an article on repression of journalism and journalists.
https://elpais.com/opinion/2023-04-23/periodismo-bajo-amenaza.html
Remarkably, the article doesn't mention Matt Taibbi or Julian Assange.
Reminds me of a Mel Brooks routine in which he plays an 800 year old man who is being interviewed. When he's asked about the difference between comedy and tragedy, the 800 year old explains,
"Comedy is when it happens to someone else. Tragedy is when it happens to you."
With a bit of editing, we could apply the explanation to censorship.
You Americans are so lucky you have the second amendment. I’m Canadian and we are absolutely hooped: right up the Wazoo.
Listen, your guns aren’t going to overthrow leviathan , that is delusional. What your guns are doing is causing them not to come for you even more. Without your peacemakers, they would be all over you, like, for instance, Canada or Australia or Germany.
Your founding fathers were prescient ; the lesson of history is that government oppression
is the biggest threat to people. Think of the patriot act: the US government is clearly a bigger threat to your society than Islamic extremism.
The only way this is going to change (other than the pitiless crowbar a events) is if a significant portion of the elite, political establishment breaks with the new normal. Until then you are lucky that you have your guns to forestall their grand plans.
Semantics is the art of wordsmithery which closely resembles jiu-jitsu. As a personal preference I refuse to use their terminology for alleged "laws" promoted by a nearly totally corrupted and corrupted Congre$$.
When these bought and paid-for pro$titicians abuse the word "Patriot" in such an egregious manner; my editorial take is to flip the meaning semantically.
So the proper description for all those fellow countryfolk who hold to the "self evident" truths of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, strike me as deserving the sobriquet of the "Patriot SUPPRESSION Act".
Now does that not make a whole lot more sense rather than falling into their semantic trap and using their devious and dubious desecration of the word "Patriot".
Addendum: it is true, that having a citizenry armed with the weapons of war can lead to some unintended consequences. Yes, mass shootings happen in America because Americans are armed to the teeth. This I would say is the cost of liberty.
The coming totalitarian state will take many more lives. It will also destroy the quality of our lives. An armed citizenry is the best defence against leviathan; It will not lead to the overthrow, but it will forestall their ever expanding efforts at control . Said another way: they are afraid of the American people and they should be ! Do you think the German authorities are afraid of the German people? Really, what are you going to fight back with steak knives !
The 1000 or so people who die in mass shootings at the hands of deranged lunatics is a sorrowful, but worthwhile price to pay. The media loves to say we need rid of the guns when it comes to some white guy plunking a couple dozen folks from a bell tower. But you notice they are always silent about black on black gun violence that claims over 10,000 lives per year.
Ambient political conditioning is the water we swim in.
Interestingly , trying to make a living as a dissident by marketing your protests has been done to death and always fails or becomes a tool of the status quo at some point . Being too poor to contribute to your causes even though I concur with many of your published views , I'm immune to exhortations to contribute financially . However , I will continue to read what you freely distribute , but As Linh Dinh pointed out recently in one of his free post . Perhaps I paraphrase , old age produces sadness followed by indifference , at 75 I seem to have reached that point.
Cheer up, it will all be over soon! In the meantime, please feel free to continue reading for free. My columns will remain free to all to read precisely because many people can't afford to pay for them. I've been one of those people for most of my life, and most Americans (and Brits) would laugh at what I still live on.
I am very wary of Substack Notes. I fear it will bring to Substack much of the toxicity of Twitter while having little prospect of attaining Twitter's reach, i.e., it will be toxic but not even useful.
Great and astonishing must read is Rod Dreher's rather new book (with reverence and awe attributed to the many stalwart, innovative and faithful survivors and servants interviewed who endured during Gulag and Soviet eras) - "Live Not By Lies" - A Manual for Christian Dissidents. Taibbi and others have more support and swelling ranks than you can imagine, however robustly they appear to be smeared in the mosh pit.
Cathy Young blocked you?! Oh no!
...who is that again?
The fact that Taibbi's getting the "treatment" really overscores the point of the Neo-authoritarian/totalitarian project. It's like being banned from the Church of Lies, branded a traitor, a heretic, then scolded by the would be "New Normalites," never short on self-righteousness (Mehdi Hasan, Stacy Plaskett-"Case," the whole "What Happened to Matt?!" crowd, who might as well be getting paid by the alphabet agencies). The Biden Administration is in essence an intelligence agency construct, or Neo-totalitarian scaffolding; they've been gunning for Substack from its inception.
"We’re experiencing real-time Sovietization," with a huge dose of
techno/fascism an odd tyrannical combo, but nonetheless this is how the current breed of pyschos are rebranding an early 20th Century "transhumanist Malthusian eugenicist movement." This psychopathic ideology resurfaces every few decades with a slightly different look. This time it's being peddled under the banner of sustainability, health, equity, and multipolarism. Ironically, the advocates of this rebranded
multipolar/fascism are eager to have corrupt UN organizations controlling numerous operations via One World Governance. The brazen pschos have tested their social engineering projects around the planet, but especially in territories where populations lack agency; China has been a favorite haunt. The techno/fascists feel confident that AI technology is ready for primetime in the West. That's why they're testing central bank digital currencies along with digital ID'S in Western Europe and Canada. Interestingly enough, the same demented crap is occurring in Russia. So even though the plebs are told there's animosty and rivalries between nation-states it doesn't mean a thing as rulers worldwide are gearing up their "special" techno devices along with an assortment of concocted well-staged crises to
contain and control the outraged billions.
The roots of our contemporary madhouse excuse for alleged civilization, is actually in part resultant of urbanization and industrialization. The inner core of the disease is centralization and concentration of money and power into fewer and fewer hands.
Many of us are conversant with the old African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. Perhaps we should consider taking that advise literally. This would be particularly true for parents or those who are becoming or will soon add a child to their family. Rather than dive in deep for the good job and all that, how about a grouping of young adults along with a few elders pooling their resources and buying up a nice piece of rural land as an intentional community. Homes would be private. The land itself would be the commons, the property of the entire community.
My home is in rural Minnesota. This state, along with neighboring Wisconsin, still feature some areas which are not overburdened by corporate style agribusiness instead of organic and health-giving farming. Much of the more tractor and monster machinery favorable flatlands are already the sites of agribusy desecration of Mother Earth and our fellow beings in the plant and animal worlds. Future survival may still be possible with small communities, united in escaping from the madding crowd and the rat race. So who won the ratrace? The rat, of course.
Who will win the human race? Time will tell.
In the past, participating in parallel economies were a way of surviving, or functioning in monopolistic centralized authoritarian regimes. And it might still be useful. In fact, those living off the grid might be the last holdouts when things start getting really nasty. In fact, many thousands of "homeless squatters" residing in federal and state parks might even be the final survivors of this madness. But of course, as surveillance technology is enhanced everyone will be hunted down and herded into "15 minute detention camp cities" while demented techno/fascists enjoy life on enormous organic farms, or lounging in their palatial estates.